Spain – Blogerim בלוגריםhttp://www.jmberlin.de/blog-en
From the corridors of the Jewish Museum BerlinMon, 05 Dec 2016 09:26:03 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1Lemon and Almond Cakehttp://www.jmberlin.de/blog-en/2012/12/lemon-and-almond-cake/
Mon, 24 Dec 2012 08:00:39 +0000http://www.jmberlin.de/blog-en/?p=430The Jewish Museum Berlin Academy was inaugurated last month under the auspices of 12th century scholar Moses Maimonides and his dictum: “Hear the truth, whoever speaks it.” The significance of this quote was discussed over a Majorcan lemon and almond cake, the recipe of which dates back to the middle ages and is a part of Jewish patisserie culture, to which Maimonides is known to have been more than partial.

Instructions:
Grind the almonds finely in the food processor.
Beat the egg yolks with the sugar to a pale cream then beat in the grated lemon peel.
Add the ground almonds and mix well.
Beat the egg whites stiff and fold into the almond mixture.
Pour into a buttered and floured 23 cm cake tin, preferably non-stick and with a removable bottom, and bake for about 40 minutes or until the cake feels firm and is lightly coloured. Let it cool before turning out.

A few years ago during a summer spent in Catalonia, I strolled through the port city of Sant Feliu de Guíxols. It is a special place: it was spared the transgressions of the Spanish coast’s building mania due to its fishing industry. It is not merely decorative but in fact successful in a particular industrial branch: producing cork. And here – nominally part of Spain but somehow a place all of its own – R.B. Kitaj and his wife spent the winter of 1953/54. Twenty years later, he bought a house in this town. What did it mean to him, this stubborn region that again and again rebelled against Spanish supremacy?

Kitaj called Catalonia a “beacon for the slumbering Jewishness in me, that awake would become a torrent.” His friendship with a Catalan cork manufacturer Josep Vicente Roma – “slender with an aquiline nose, mustached and socialist and nimble and quick-witted”

– was an inspiration and kind of home for him. Catalonia left many traces in his paintings: for instance, in “The Hispanist” or “Kennst Du das Land?” The land and the culture had symbolic meaning and become places of longing: “Catalonia, that played a part in inspiring me to become this strange Jew, perhaps the first Jew who wanted to unleash a new Jewish art.”